{"id":27330,"date":"2022-11-25T05:45:23","date_gmt":"2022-11-25T10:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=27330"},"modified":"2022-11-25T05:45:54","modified_gmt":"2022-11-25T10:45:54","slug":"after-33-years-the-stanford-cat-network-adopts-the-last-of-the-campus-cats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2022\/11\/25\/after-33-years-the-stanford-cat-network-adopts-the-last-of-the-campus-cats\/","title":{"rendered":"After 33 years, the Stanford Cat Network adopts the last of the campus cats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Nathan J. Winograd<\/p>\n\n\n

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Please join Jennifer and me as we raise a glass to the organization that made a life-and-death difference for so many animals, helped usher in a kinder, gentler world for community cats, and, on a personal level, put me on my particular path in animal welfare. Cheers, Stanford Cat Network, and well done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every non-profit organization claims its goal is to put itself out of business. It is a clich\u00e9 as old as time, but it isn\u2019t true. To paraphrase the American philosopher Eric Hoffer, every cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket. The animal protection movement is certainly no exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ASPCA<\/a>, Austin Pets Alive<\/a>, Best Friends<\/a>, and the Humane Society of the United States<\/a> do not exist to save animals. They exist to fundraise. Meeting the mission and thus solving the \u201cproblem\u201d is no longer a ghost of thought in organizational operations<\/a>. Instead, they offer fantasies of some mythic time in the future, even while they fight proven solutions today<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But every so often, an organization proves to be the exception. The Stanford Cat Network (Feline Friends Network) \u2014 formed when Stanford University officials announced plans to eradicate the campus cats \u2014 is one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 33 years of helping thousands of cats through TNR, adoption, advocacy, and education<\/a>, the Network has concluded its labor of love \u2014 the last of the remaining Stanford cats are gone: having passed from old age or been adopted. The organization has successfully put itself out of business. In a recent letter to friends and supporters, the Board of Directors announced that it had completed its mission, announced an end to its fundraising, and bid a fond farewell.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the remarkable story of the Network, reprinted from an article my son, a student, wrote for The Stanford Daily<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He awoke to the voice of a woman outside his window. It was my dad\u2019s first morning in Crothers Hall as an incoming law student. In the bushes near the back courtyard, she was setting down paper plates heaped with food for some eager felines. He stepped outside and approached her. At first startled and concerned about the stranger, she relaxed after he explained that he, too, loved cats and was simply wondering what she was doing. She explained that she worked with an organization known as the Stanford Cat Network, a group that fed the cats who called Stanford University home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of the Cat Network\u2019s founding in 1989, roughly 1,000 cats lived on campus. That might be surprising to current students. After more than a year at Stanford, I\u2019ve only seen one: a handsome, black tomcat who appears and reappears every so often, always slinking off into the night. Most of the cats were the abandoned pets (or their offspring) of summer-bound students. In those days, the University viewed the cats as a problem. Administrators were concerned about potential health risks to students, faculty, and staff and the optics of having homeless cats on campus. And the students, faculty, and staff were concerned about the welfare of the animals \u2014 the sight of a mother cat and her kittens strolling through Tresidder would, of course, inspire worry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But instead of taking this compassion to heart, University administrators decided to contract with a pest control company to trap the cats<\/a> and take them to the Santa Clara County pound. Out of sight; out of mind. The pound was, like most at the time, killing the vast majority of cats and dogs that had the misfortune of passing through its doors. It didn\u2019t matter if they were healthy or sick, young or old, friendly or traumatized. Only a lucky few would be adopted out and the rest would be killed. Such was the fate that seemingly awaited Stanford\u2019s cats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fearing for the felines they not only devoted their time and energy to, but also had come to know, name, and love, a network of dedicated caretakers \u2014 primarily Stanford students, staff, and faculty, including at least one Nobel laureate \u2014 got together to urge the administration to abandon its deadly plan. Hoping for support, they turned to a local humane society in Santa Clara County and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), one of the nation\u2019s largest, most influential, and wealthiest nonprofits \u201cdedicated\u201d to the humane treatment of animals. But to the surprise of the caretakers, these organizations sided with the University. They agreed with the death sentence. Cat extermination was perfectly in line with HSUS policy and the policy of other \u201chumane\u201d organizations like the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the American Humane Association (AHA), which then held the position that \u201cownerless animals must be destroyed. It is as simple as that<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They justified the rounding up and killing of community cats with the claim that the lives of homeless cats were \u201cnasty, brutish and short.\u201d Since many of the cats were \u201cferal,\u201d meaning they were not social with people, they could not be adopted into homes. Thus, HSUS, ASPCA, AHA, and other animal \u201cprotection\u201d organizations promoted the killing of cats as an act of mercy. At the time, the idea that animal sheltering required killing animals, pets or strays, was largely unquestioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the cat lovers at Stanford could not accept this. They saw cats that enjoyed healthy, happy and well-cared for lives on the Farm, a relatively safe place with a temperate climate and friendly people. And so, in a small meeting room at the Palo Alto Humane Society, they devised a plan to save the cats. They established the Stanford Cat Network to coordinate volunteers, publish reports<\/a> of new, tame cats on campus in The Daily (in case any were lost pets) and trap all the cats for spay\/neuter. After sterilization surgery paid for by the Palo Alto Humane Society, those who were social would be adopted into homes and the rest returned to campus under the watchful eye and care of the volunteers at feeding stations. At the same time, the Cat Network would educate students not to adopt pets they could not care for, distributing materials discouraging the act. This would keep the cat population from reproducing or growing, allowing it to slowly decrease over time. It was a humane solution that would not cost a single life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They made their pitch to the University. By that time Stanford Environmental Health & Safety had already conducted a study proving that the cats posed no health risk, addressing one of the major concerns administrators had. But it would take more than science to turn the fate of Stanford\u2019s cats. One day, the cat of Donald Kennedy, the President of Stanford, wandered away from home. Shortly thereafter, Kennedy\u2019s cat turned up at one of the Cat Network\u2019s unofficial feeding stations. Recognizing the wayward feline from a missing cat poster on campus, a member of the Cat Network returned him to Kennedy. When asked how they had found his cat, the Cat Network volunteer told Kennedy about the Stanford Cat Network, the feeding stations and the concern for the fate of the cat population. The next day, Kennedy donated $50 to the group, and it was officially accepted by the University. Thus, the nation\u2019s first university-sanctioned trap-neuter-release<\/a> (TNR) program was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, universities from coast to coast<\/a>, including Auburn, Central Florida University, Arizona State, Texas A&M, North Carolina State, and many more have community cat programs modeled after the Stanford Cat Network. The story of the Stanford Cat Network is not only part of the University\u2019s legacy of innovation, but one of the greatest leaps forward in the history of the animal protection movement. It not only humanely reduced the Stanford campus cat population from upwards of 1,000 to no more than a dozen, it helped ignite a revolution in lifesaving that has fundamentally changed homeless cat care in the United States. TNR programs, rather than round up and kill, are embraced across the country from universities, to towns to cities, to entire states<\/a>, protections for feeders of community animals have been enshrined into law and many shelters have embraced a philosophy of No Kill for all healthy and treatable animals that pass through their doors. Even HSUS, once one of TNR\u2019s most vociferous critics, now accepts that, \u201cPrograms that attempt to use lethal control to eliminate cat populations are inhumane, ineffective, and wasteful of scarce resources.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it all began 30 years ago at Stanford, when a determined group of cat lovers refused to succumb to defeatism, refused to accept the Orwellian notion that killing is kindness and, instead, found a new and better way. Recently rechristened the Feline Friends Network, the Stanford Cat Network remains ever dedicated to caring for the furry felines who call our campus home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years after my son\u2019s article was published, the mission has been achieved. To ensure no cats were left behind, the group set up cameras at all the feeding stations on campus. In the end, no one came to eat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Nathan J. Winograd Please join Jennifer and me as we raise a glass to the organization that made a life-and-death difference for so many animals, helped usher in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[3929,3930],"class_list":["post-27330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-after-33-years","tag-the-stanford-cat-network-adopts-the-last-of-the-campus-cats"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}